The Australian residential sector accounts for approximately 10 per cent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and offers significant opportunities for mitigation to which households are largely oblivious. These opportunities include: an energy efficient building shell that minimises the need for artificial heating and cooling, energy efficient built-in appliances, plug-in appliances and low or zero emission local energy generation. This paper focuses on energy efficiency of the building shell and built-in appliances and identifies strategies for minimising greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficient shell and appliances are a necessary condition for transition to carbon neutral or zero carbon housing.

This paper is one of a series of papers from a single study, Hybrid Buildings: Pathways for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in the Housing Sector by the same authors, covering the energy use within the residential sector. The companion papers are: Plug-in Appliances DES 73: Carbon Emissions from Domestic Appliances; Local Energy Generation: DES 75: Carbon Emissions form Local Energy Generation; and Hybrid Dwellings: DES 76: Carbon Emissions from Dwellings - Transitioning to Zero Carbon Housing.